Nightclubs Are the New Cash Registers at Strip Casinos

Apr 02, 12 | 12:01 am

By Tovin Lapan

In a town built on gambling, megaclubs have created a business model that has sustained investors even during a recession.

The trend started quietly, then began exploding with the likes of Rain at the Palms, Pure at Caesars Palace and Tao at Venetian. Together, they sated young revelers on the hunt for a new sort of Vegas debauchery. Where their parents and grandparents enjoyed a different sort of nightclub — where booze, food and entertainment came cheap because the real casino payoff would come later at the gaming tables — this new generation of Vegas visitors came with pockets full of cash and plastic, ready to spends hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on liquor and the chance to listen to famous DJs play their house mixes.

Casino bosses, skeptical at first, couldn’t help but notice the trend, and in time they were tearing out slot machines and felt tables in favor of nightclubs. (Among them: MGM Grand removed Family Feud slot machines to make room for Tabu Ultra Lounge.) The numbers showed they were making more money per square foot than gambling devices, upending previous formulas for maximizing casino revenue. Even casino visionary Steve Wynn, who launched the redefining of Las Vegas in 1989 when he opened Mirage (where dancing meant dolphins and entertainment meant big stage productions such as Siegfried & Roy), now trumpets nightclubs as the prevailing source of entertainment in a city filled with all sorts of it.

Wynn took megaclubs to another level when he opened Encore in 2008 with XS.

Money from gambling had been maybe “the best cash register in the building until the clubs came along,” Wynn said when opening Encore.

What happened?

“It’s a sign in the change of tastes of the younger generation that wants to be part of the show, not in the audience,” he said. “They want to be the actors.”

Source: LA Sun. Continue reading the full article “Nightclubs are the new cash registers at Strip casinos”